


As Everything Ends

by inkykeys



Series: Sokovia Burning [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7550278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkykeys/pseuds/inkykeys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wanda's job is to protect the metal core embedded in the earth; Pietro's job is to fight the robots. That is until there is no more Pietro.</p><p>Wanda's reaction to Pietro's death, and what comes after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Everything Ends

There is one singular thought in her usually busy mind: protect the core. It is her job, and she intents to do it well.

The droids come at her from all sides, racing towards the metal embedded in the earth. She blasts them away, hands moving in a rhythmic frenzy, channeling her rage. She pictures the metal men as everything she’s ever hated. They are Tony Stark, they are the bomb that killed her parents, they are bullying children and uncaring adults, they are corrupt governments, they are Strucker and his torture.

She dances around the core, hands firing red. Her thoughts flow together, making the world both impossibly slow and incredibly fast. Every step, every spout of energy, add to this rush. The cacophony around her seems to grow, building towards a crescendo.

A crescendo that never comes. Instead, her body goes cold. The chaos around her fades to nothing. She sees her brother in her mind’s eye. Feels his last moments, the triumph and desperation. Feels the bullets enter his body all too slowly. Feels his pain. Feels the life drain out of him.

The moment his heart stops, fire burns from her chest outward. It chases away the cold, consuming her with pain.

A primal scream tears it’s way out of her throat. She hears it, but doesn’t feel connected to it. Doesn’t feel connected to anything.

The sharp gravel grinds into her knees as she collapses, but she doesn’t feel it. Red waves pour out around her, vaporizing the droids, but she doesn’t notice. The only thing she can focus on is Pietro: his cocky half-smile, the way he shuffles his feet when he tries to fall asleep, the way he always burns his tongue when he eats too fast, the gentle reassurance of him her whole life. Now he’s gone, past tense: smiled, shuffled. She felt it, feels it. It plays in her head on a terrible loop. It rips through her like a hurricane.

The world fades in again and she’s sure of one thing: Ultron will pay. She will put him through the pain she is suffering. It won’t be enough, but it will be something.

She finds him broken, lying in a bus. “Wanda,” he croaks out, “If you stay you’ll die.”

“I just did.” Her voice is darker than it has ever been before, it drips with pain. “You know how it felt?” She reaches inside the metal chest, using her magic to find what he designed to be his heart. How ironic. She grabs it, feels it pulse within her grasp. She rips it from his chest, the metal twisting around the whole she creates. She holds the metal ‘heart’ in the palm of her hand and watches as the lights fade from his eyes. “It felt like that.”

Her head snaps up at the clang of metal and she knows a droid has made it’s way to the core. She has no time to stop it before the ground gives way beneath her. She floats weightless in the fractured bus as the city falls apart around her. Everything she’s ever known, crumbling to dust.

The red robot with the heart of a man appears behind her. He is gentle as he carries her away from her burning city. “Don’t look.” He says, his voice quiet. But she does. It is horrible, the death and destruction. All the people she’s ever known, all the destruction she’s seen before, it pales in comparison to this. This is annihilation. It pains her, but the pain is dull in the numbness left in Pietro’s wake.

The red man, the “Vision”, boards her onto a flying ship. She crumples, watching as Sokovia burns one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Last part of my Maximoff twins prequel series. Not exactly a prequel, but something I wish they would've shown more of.
> 
> Seriously, where was my still-grieving Wanda in Civil War?


End file.
